Yvonne CHOW

1929 - 2023

YVONNE CHOW (née Wong) May 23, 1929 - December 19, 2023 She had a curious and inquiring mind and a love of learning. Born to a different generation, and at the beginning of the Great Depression in Elm Creek, Manitoba, Yvonne was the youngest of five children. Growing up without running water, central heat or indoor plumbing, she said she never wanted for anything and didn't feel poor. But if asked, she never shied away from declaring that she grew up poor. Her only regret was that she never learned to play the piano. This was a woman who lived life with tremendous gratitude, positivity and generosity. Still in her teens, she caught the eye of a young man who would become her husband of 72 years while he was visiting her brother, Jimmy, a fellow Engineering student at the University of Manitoba. Fate was sealed for their union when following one of his visits, he discovered chocolate bars in his coat pocket placed by her approving mother. At the age of 23, she left the open-sky prairies for the West Coast and married her love, Wayne "Way" Wing Chow in Vancouver, BC. They made their home and raised their family of five children in Victoria, BC, where she remained until her death at the age of 94. She was mother to Gaylene (Keith), Larry (Lai Ping), Doug (Tong), Marla (John) and Warren (Hong Ying); and loving Poh Poh/Ma Ma to nine grandchildren, Michael (Marta), Sves (aka Stephanie), Christopher, Alicia, Vanessa, Andrew (Jessie), Patrick, Dominic (Elaine), Chloé (Aurora), Christine (Ethan) and Sarah. We will miss her terribly, but most of all, we celebrate her memory and are immensely grateful that she enjoyed a long and happy life. A Celebration of Life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on January 27, 2024, at First Memorial Funeral Services & Garden of Memories, 4725 Falaise Dr., Victoria, BC V8Y 1B4. Flowers gratefully declined; however, please consider making a donation to the Victoria Symphony (victoriasymphony.ca). As a lifelong music lover and symphony-goer, Yvonne would have loved that.